Finsbury Park station tunnel

Sutent

I know I walk pretty fast, but does anyone else get annoyed by people in the tunnel on the way to the station. The most annoying is people who need to hold hands walking down. Surely there are more romantic places to do this. There are also lack of overtaking places, especially when people cant walk in straight lines. Sometime you can walk on the opposite track but risking annoying people who walk in the opposite direction. There are also 2 oyester card readers when you exit in the evening but everyone seems to block the tunnel for the first one.

graeme

Welcome to London. Probably best to take some deep breaths and enjoy the fact that there is still some romance in the city, even if it is in underground tunnels. Now, if they were wearing Arsenal scarves...

tosscat

Or take a deep breath and say 'excuse me'?

magicP

The hand-holders are annoying, even if the romantic element is good.

If you are not using Oyster Pre-Pay, but have a season ticket instead, there's no need to touch in at Finsbury Park. When you touch out at your destination the Oyster reader knows you have a season ticket on your card.

markpack

Ironically this morning I walked past two people who were saying how the station was an example of why they hated London - too many people and everyone walking too fast.

I fear I'm in the camp that adds to their hatred...

rainbow_carnage

I'm always either running late or in a hurry to get home. Slow-walkers are annoying. It's fine if you want to walk slowly, but have a little consideration and step to one side. The tunnel is wide enough for two, but not if people walk straight down the middle. I do say, "excuse me," but often people are too busy chatting to notice. It seems rude to yell, though less rude than shoving them out of the way.

Hambo

You could easily have a fast lane and a slow lane in both directions, as each side is wide enough for two people. The main problem is should the fast lane be on the left, like on escalators, or on the right, like on the motorway? No one really knows so you end up with both lanes being slow.

Personally I feel it's more like a motorway so would rather overtake on the right. How about we all start doing this and then slowly an accepted etiquette might form!

Papa

Simple solution. There's two lanes - one should be slow, one fast, with people walking down and up in each. Oh and anyone walking slowly while reading a Metro should be told that if they want to dawdle and get in people's way they could at least buy a real newspaper. I consider myself pretty relaxed, but slow people in my way drive me mad, which may mean that I'm not a pretty relaxed person.

JungleFaceJake

Just push anyone who gets in your way, and leave them in your wake.

Its also best to charge in between people holding hands, this will do one of two things.

Either break their fingers = Win
Or they will continue to hold on, but the force of you pushing will force them to wrap around your body and they will bang into eachother hopefully smashing eachothers faces in the process.
This also = Win.

Also if there is someone in a wheelchair or an old person with a stick then these are fair game too as they are almost always fakers.

Its best to kick their stick out from under them and then trample over on their face.
Or tip them out of the chair and rush down the tunnel with the chair and roll it under the next coming 210 bus.


Although the romantic element is nice

Papa

An additional playground tactic is to tap them on one shoulder and then when they turn in that direction, run past them on the other side.

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SimonB

... or just slow down ... take a deep breath and relax ... London life is constantly running at a million miles an hour ... take advantage of your 30 seconds 'off' ... at the end of the day you're only delaying your journey by 30 seconds!

andy

leave earlier?

slats

I think you all may need to chill out a little...

...then again I get the bus

Papa

...I ride a bike It's only rarely I use the tunnel of doom, which I notice they have half tiled with slippery when wet floor tiles to add to the fun. There's still no excuse for dawdling and weaving while reading the Metro though

nesta

It's the people who ride thier bikes down the tunnel that really wind me up! ;-)

andy

I've been loving watching the tiling go down. Every day it's been a little bit further.

But I'm sad like that.

dorothy

I like the slow methodical progress too.

Looking forward to seeing how they finish off the bits around the handrail pole things.

Arkady

@andy: I'm with you on the tiling. I'm excited to see what they're going to do at the base of the rails, they best not leave it like that.

Does anyone know when this part of the refurb is supposed to be done? Any word on the remainder of the station renovations, like opening the second tunnel? There was an article on the beeb about how lots of the station redevelopments were axed due to the crises, but FP was not mentioned.

Arky

Arkady

@dorothy: jeez we're sad *and* synchronsied.

andy

I've been thinking about the poles. I figured that they have to leave the existing handrails in, for safety reasons.

Then, when they've finished, they'll replace the handrail and the middle tiles in one big (or maybe two) big goes, bolting the new handrail on top of the new middle tiles.

It would be too fiddly to do this as they go.

My mind wanders easily.

Arkady

While we're speculating about this minutiae, why would they need a rail in the Wells Terrace tunnel but not in the Seven Sisters one? Is it that much thinner?

Also, you know where those two tunnels join with the main 'bridge' tunnel giving access to the platforms? You know how there's a sort of temporary wall up there, against the outer wall? I used to assume that this was because that would where the new tunnel to City North/Goodwin St would be. But this is not so - the City North plans clearly show the entrance as connecting with the Seven Sisters tunnel a few metres down. This factlet may be interesting to someone. Also, if they do open the second tunnel up and extend it into the Wells Terrace tunnel they will spoil a lot of their new paintwork and tiling.

Arky

tosscat

I was wondering about the handrail holes and now you've ruined it andy. Of course that's what they'll do. I had such imaginative plans for them.

Slabber

I walk as fast as I possibly can and barge past people if they won't move.

Ian

The new handrails have started to go in as per Andy's prediction...

andy

Get in! I have been childishly excited about this. I've even been pointing out the new cladding over the wiring and lighting. That tunnel is going to look like the future.

Ian

I've also been waiting for the cladding for ages. I was with you on the handrail approach, anything else would have been MADNESS. Watching these small things change improves my journey. The new handrail section is lower than the old one though. What is the meaning of this?

tosscat

What are they going to do with the tiling though. I love the green (a bit like Holloway Road), but where thay are damaged they have been replaced by neutral ones, which leads me to think they are just going to paint over them. Surely the lower handrail is to prevent people touching it, thereby reducing the communication of infection.

Ian

Interesting theory TC. But what about the snotty nosed kids? They are several petri dishes each of bacteria are vertically challenged enough to be holding on tight. Are London Underground blind to that peril, or are they happy with a policy of containment of disease amongst the under 18s?

markpack

@Ian Must be we're all getting shorter. Or our arms are getting longer. Or both.

tosscat

I made a detour to see the railing and I'm a little disaapointed. Why has it got two rails? Why are the bolts not rebated? I liked the simpliciy of the previous one. I did like the duct tape join between the old and new - I think they should keep this feature..